The current course of business demands more power from computer systems. This demand is often met through the creation of computer clusters, of which there are two primary types: “high availability” clusters, where more than one node is used to guarantee the continuous operability of a machine; and, “high performance” clusters, where several nodes combine efforts to yield more processing power. Such clusters require a method of organization and storage. A general method is physically housing individual computers in a single compartment. Examples of this method include housing regular tower and desktop computers on metal frames and rack-mounting computer units.
The method of stacking computers on metal frames is widely used. It consists of housing several computers on a metal shelf and electrically connecting all the computers together using cable wires to establish a network. The metal shelves are open to the environment and usually either bolted to the ground or stand as typical pillar type columns. One problem with this method is that it stacks whole computer modules in a vertical position. This type of stacking consumes large amounts of space and is very costly.
To an extent, the rack-mountable method of stacking reduces the large space consumption problem faced by the stacking method. This method includes a completely enclosed housing having a door and slidable drawer type racks for inserting and mounting computer modules. Simple racks allow this sliding to occur simply by allowing the metal faces from neighboring nodes to “scratch” against each other. This rack-mounted system has several drawbacks. It is expensive, it requires a compact Motherboard-CPU configuration (height cannot exceed 4.3 cm which is the generic height for the Rack-Mount), it is heavy (enclosed onto a metal box with its own CPU-cooling system, memory and Power-Supply), and it is difficult to service and upgrade since the internal parts of each computer module are enclosed into their own box and not easily accessible.
The blade rack method uses a blade-rack housing having slidable drawers for stacking circuit boards of computer modules without completely enclosing them in their metal box. So called “blade servers” use plastic, metal or another type of covering to enclose them into a proprietary package (i.e., housing). The units are then combined into a secondary housing that is attached to a rack-mountable structure. This method removes the typical top metal casing which covers the top, back, and sides of the computer circuit board but retains the bottom and front portion. Partially or completely hard-covered computer modules, with the top and back of each computer circuit board left open, are then inserted and mounted onto the slidable drawer. On some types of blade servers, such as the blades manufactured by “Rack-Savers,” this allows air that flows through the entire blade rack housing to pass through each partially metal wrapped computer module. The blade-rack housing also includes cooling fans coupled to the housing for cooling these partially metal wrapped computer modules. This system still presents many downsides. The system is still expensive due to the partial metal wrapping and type of housing used and each module requires its own power supply. The computer modules are still heavy due to the weight of the partial metal wrapping and still consume a large space for storage. The cooling system only works if all the computer modules are inserted in place, if one of the computer modules is pulled out, the air-flow is interrupted and some of the computer modules over-heat.
Therefore, there is a need for a housing assembly that allows easy insertion and removal of a computer circuit board. The housing assembly should reduce overall weight, cost, and space required for housing computer modules. The housing assembly should also include a common power supply and central cooling system and provide a networked environment for efficient processing. In addition, the housing assembly should allow easy accessibility of components on computer circuit boards and allow each computer an option to act as part of the network or act as an individual module. Furthermore, the housing assembly should allow groups of computers to act as one main networked cluster or be divided into several smaller networked clusters that may be joined or separated from the main network cluster.